The technical area of this invention is that of observation devices allowing an observer inside a vehicle to see the vehicle's exterior surroundings.
Armored vehicles frequently are equipped with devices allowing the personnel to see outside. These devices, called episcopes, comprise a water-tight casing containing an optical unit with one or two prisms whose purpose is to transmit rays of light toward an eyepiece by means of an optical conveyance system comprising an even number of reflections. Episcopes of this type are described in French Pat. Nos. 2 365 137 and 2 496 905. Such episcopes are mounted so as to allow viewing in one direction only. The result is that the observer is obliged to move from one episcope to another if he wants to see in two opposite directions. Furthermore, as space is very limited inside such vehicles, the observer is obliged to turn around, which makes use of the rear episcope very awkward.